The street stays there, I love it so much

I miss the city again, the days when I touched nostalgia everywhere. Sometimes when life is tiring, I return to the small attic in the suburbs, away from the bustling city. I feel overwhelmed by the splendor of this place. More than ever, like a snail, I like to curl up in a simple but warm shell when the storm comes...

Having been attached to this city for nearly 20 years, I feel like I belong to it. It is not my birthplace, but I have passed through all the streets in this city, stayed there, and sometimes got drunk and cried and laughed with it. This city is sometimes very strange, it is like a Rubik's cube that is woven together in a discrete and arranged way. The day I packed up and left my hometown, I was surprised by the city's avenue, which was also the avenue of my life, of course there were many turns. Right, wrong, right, left were seen through the white shirt. So pure and ideal! The 18-year-old boy was shy and a little scared by the splendor of the city. I failed the university entrance exam, right when it was the rainy season...

Illustration: Dao Tuan

The rain flooded the small alley, the street lights cast the shadow of 12 years of schooling on the street. I was silent in the city rain, letting the rain and wind rush into my heart as if washing away something that had just sprouted but was about to become hardened.

There were all sorts of unnamed jobs in this place, and sometimes I couldn’t even name them. At that time, it seemed like no interest was ideal for me, and sometimes I tried to forget myself in the rain and wind of a foreign land. I gave up.

But somehow this city has always been silently by my side, guiding me to stand up in its own way. The roads have begun to change leaves, to bloom a new season, after the shaking wind and rain, the white star flowers seem to cover the sidewalk, the trees shed their last leaves to welcome the new season of nectar. Yes, the old trees also change their skin and flesh, so why do I cling to my sadness and live so lifelessly?

The day the last drops of rain fell on the sidewalk was the day my heart began to turn green again. The iced tea bucket was always full at the beginning of the street, a few traditional motorbike taxi drivers were leisurely resting their feet on the saddle to take a nap, the rice shops with a rustic flavor still emitted warm smoke, anywhere on the street corners throughout this city and all had signs hanging... free! I had seen it many times when I went back and forth but had never questioned it, as if it were an obvious fact of this city, but suddenly I was lost in my small rented room, "my snail" crawled out of its shell and asked this city: Why is it free? Why do I consider it obvious?

Perhaps the love between people from the beginning until now has not changed, it is something that cannot be bought, sold, bartered, or profited from because the nature of our coming together is free! And only “free” is true love. In the misty last rain of the city that year, I knew my heart was also blooming green again. Street corners, rows of trees, shops,... are all free to those who need it, I also started to practice living like this city.

To escape the siege of a heart that is always struggling, I must gradually practice with myself first, practice giving my love to myself for free. Forgive the immature enthusiasm of youth, warm the many failures of my materialistic expectations. Return to cultivate more simplicity in my heart. Like the boxes of iced tea, bags of cakes here, just give them away, please don't ask the question "How much is enough?" The word "free" already contains enough. That is enough of the heart, of practicing and spreading good things!

Then I also know enough in the days and months of attachment to this place, like the old trees that have gone through many rains and sunshines, the rains and sunshines are the work of heaven, the trees still cast shade and drop pure white flowers for the city.

And me, on rainy days in this city, at night listening to the sound of rain falling steadily on the roof of the small rented house, the film of nearly 20 years of being stuck with the street keeps appearing, filling me up little by little. It's still raining, the street is still the street, but now I'm different, I know how to love the street and be gentler with myself, in the rainy night of the city, I softly promise myself: The street just stays there, I love it all!!!

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-hoa/202507/pho-cu-o-yen-do-toi-thuong-day-pho-cho-9012156/